FASHION STARTUP: Tips For E-Commerce & The Cloud
Cloud-based computing offers a number of benefits for online retailers. Operating your ecommerce business in the cloud will lower your costs, increase sales and improve overall security.
Right off the bat, cloud computing makes it easier to scale your platform as your business develops. In the cloud, the physical limitations of dedicated servers are alleviated. As your business expands, cloud-based platforms grow right along with your sales to accommodate the expansion, so you’ll only have to pay for as much bandwidth as your scaling requires.
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YOUR ONLINE START
Which means rather than burning through a lot of cash at startup to establish a dedicated server, IT infrastructure, hardware maintenance, and software upgrades, you’ll only pay for what you need when you need it. As your requirements increase, so too will your revenues. But you’ll only have to make the additional expenditures when they are justified. This gives you the flexibility to invest more in other critical areas of your business to help you grow more rapidly. Something that can really help your business get off the floor is good marketing, hiring a video distributing agency to make your company a good promotional video would be a very worthwhile investment.
Reliability and accessibility are improved as well. If your internal network goes down, or the on-site machine hosting your business falters, your customers will be left to shop elsewhere. These issues are eliminated with the redundancies built into cloud-based platforms. Geographical limitations are also overcome, both for your customers and for you. Offering your wares in the cloud means your shoppers can be located anywhere on Earth. If they have internet access, they can shop your store. This ready accessibility also means you can have multiple site managers, so you’re covered 24/7/365.
For consumers, when your store is in the cloud, access is as simple as clicking a link, or typing your URL. They are freed of the hassle of downloading and installing specific software to make a purchase from you. Let’s say for example you sell makeup online. A fully hosted ecommerce solution like Shopify will handle all of the heavy lifting in the background, while you focus on making your product as appealing as possible for your customers.
CLOUD BASED SOLUTIONS
The best cloud-based solutions provide templates you can easily customize with your own branding to make it as appealing as possible for the women who comprise your customer base. The platform can be set up to process orders, track inventory and help with your marketing efforts, including email campaigns and social media. As for security, the most advanced cloud-based solutions are compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) right out of the box. This means your customers’ financial data is protected from theft and you’re protected from fraud.
Operating your ecommerce platform in the cloud means it is also future proof. Hosted software solutions are managed by the provider, so when upgrades are released, they’re integrated into your site right away. In other words, you’re always using the most advanced version of the software. Bug fixes and new security protocols are enacted immediately upon their release. Plus, if you’ve customized the platform in any way to make it more attractive to your clients, those adaptations will automatically carry forward with the new version.
BE PREPARED
With a reliable, scalable partner behind you offering unlimited bandwidth capabilities, secure hosting, fast servers and innovative apps, you’ll grow your business faster, more easily and with a lot more flexibility. If you should suddenly experience a surge in business, the platform will adapt automatically. Unexpected publicity, or a flash sale opportunity could overload your on-site solution and cost you business. Meanwhile, the best cloud-based solutions dynamically provision whatever resources you need to handle demand.
Pairing e commerce and the cloud has increased the earning potential of online businesses tremendously. Now it’s time for ecommerce entrepreneurs to take advantage.
Images from Jet Setter by Pawel Widurski for Design SCENE Magazine
